A coworker asked me today if I was an empath and I had no idea what that was. I asked her to explain and it was basically “someone who knows what other people are going through.” It’s way off from what I assumed it meant (I thought she said “are you in N-PATH” and I assumed it was a certification program lol). But isn’t this just someone with empathy?
I just think it's a response to social trauma that makes us really overly aware of minor emotional shifts in someone's tone and body language.
It's probably not even healthy, as you cannot actually know what others are thinking but you still end up feeling like you do nonetheless. Like, I'll agree that reading between the emotional lines is a good descriptor of it, but I do not think that's necessarily a positive, especially if you end up focusing in on it and end up in weird shitty unintended emotional feedback loops between you and another person who might just be having an off day or slightly off moment lol
You're right that it does help you read the room really fast though, sort of a really in tune and always on vibe checker going off.
Yeah, I think we're largely in agreement. The people who act like it's a supernatural ability make it borderline impossible to talk reasonably about it, sadly.